Moscow draw frustrates Wenger

Arsenal FC manager Arsène Wenger was disappointed despite seeing his side gain their first point of the UEFA Champions League campaign with a goalless draw against FC Lokomotiv Moskva in Russia.

Wenger frustrated
"I was frustrated with the result as we always want to win," the Frenchman said. "I thought it was a good performance from my team who showed good commitment and desire to win - but we could have done better."

Seven winless games
At half-time, though, the situation could have been worse for Wenger, who has now overseen seven successive European matches without a win. After Thierry Henry had squandered two early opportunities, Lokomotiv dominated the game and had three chances of their own to break the deadlock.

Gaps in defence
Lokomotiv captain Dmitri Loskov missed two efforts before playing in Mikheil Ashvetia who failed to control the ball in a good position. Gaps were apparent in the visitors' defence and Wenger was concerned. "We gave them too much room in the first half, especially Loskov and [Dmitri] Khokhlov," he said.

Better second half
But he was happier with the improvement in the second period. Arsenal were on top and could have sneaked all three points had Robert Pires not fired his shot straight at goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov from close range, "In the second half, we put them under more pressure but the Russians' football became very defensive," Wenger added. "They played long balls and kept their good defence. But it's not a failure."

Fair result for Semin
Lokomotiv coach Yuri Semin was pleased with a draw, which goes some way to erasing the memory of Matchday 1's last-gasp defeat at FC Dynamo Kyiv. "It was an equal match with an equal amount of scoring chances. Arsenal could have won and so could we," was his assessment of the game.

'Arsenal are difficult'
"Tactically, we were very good. Our players fulfilled their task: it's very difficult to play against Arsenal when they have possession of the ball. We did our best to keep up the amount of possession we had and our defence neutralised Arsenal's attack quite well. We had some very good scoring chances, especially Loskov and Khokhlov."

Sennikov singled out
Semin also paid tribute to defender Dmitri Sennikov, who limited Henry's influence after the French forward's initial early flurry. "He had a very good game against Henry." He added: "Any positive result is acceptable for us and we are satisfied to have taken our first point. Last year, we had the same schedule in losing our first game and drawing our second game - and still we made it into the next round."